Hingham ferry adds trips during Fore River Bridge work

Two additional trips will be added to the weekday Hingham ferry schedule, one departing at 7:30 a.m, from Hingham Shipyard and the other returning at 6:15 p.m. from Rowes Wharf.

The added service is intended to help relieve congestion on Route 3A during the final three months of worrk on the Fore River Bridge. The boat is now making 19 round trips on weekdays.

It has not been decided how long the extra trip will be offered.

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Traffic is reduced to one lane in each direction for three months so that construction crews from J.F. White Contracting Co. can remove half of the existing temporary bridge and build approach spans to the new bridge.

From Sept. 1 to Oct. 1, three lanes will be open, but the number of lanes in each direction will vary. After Oct. 1, the bridge will return to two lanes in each direction.

As of Tuesday morning, Marvin said they are continuing to monitor traffic and encourage people to seek alternate routes and take public transportation.

The lane reductions are part of the $244 million bridge replacement project, which includes construction of a vertical-lift bridge and demolition of the temporary bridge that opened in 2003 after its predecessor, built in 1936, was deemed unsafe.

The project was supposed to be completed by September 2016, but some of the 85-ton wheels that will help raise and lower the center span of the bridge arrived damaged in the summer of 2014.